Center Parcs’ Moore backs bid to rescue plans for Afan Valley Resort

THE man who brought Center Parcs to the UK is hoping to rescue the Afan Valley Adventure Resort project.

Peter Moore has become the driving force behind the £200m resort since it became caught up in the alleged serious financial issues and irregularities concerning Northern Powerhouse Developments (NPD) and its director Gavin Woodhouse, the company and person behind the applicant, Afan Valley Limited.

Despite stepping down from his role with NPD as non-executive chairman of leisure, planning officers at Neath Port Talbot Council said Mr Moorehad emphasised in writing and through his actions over the last three months that he remained committed to the scheme along with the appointed interim managers and administrators Duff & Phelps.

Furthermore, officers have said key operators Landal Green Parks, Go Ape, Neuman Aqua, Venture Xtreme Consultancy and Briton Engineering Developments Ltd (the company behind SnowFlex) had all provided letters supporting the project together with the planning agents, infrastructure company, and architects.

In a report going before the local authority’s planning committee next week officers said Jaguar Land Rover had yet to decide if it wanted to be involved but Bear Grylls remained “supportive” and had “endorsed the progression of discussions with alternative and equally capable 4x4 brands” who would be interested in delivering an adventure experience on the site.

Planners said they understood from the administrator a new company would soon be established that would take forward the Afan Valley project.

The update comes as a sixmonth deadline expired yesterday. When planning permission was granted in March, it included the condition that legal agreements had to be signed off within six months.

Now a six-month extension is being applied for with councillors due to vote on the request on Tuesday, September 24.

According to a report going before councillors, planning agents Nineteen47 state: “Peter Moore and myself, as well as the landowner Clive Mishon and the administrators Duff and Phelps, wholeheartedly wish to take the project forward through the planning process and subsequently to on-site delivery.”

They want the extension to continue working on the legal agreements before moving onto the project delivery which they say they’re committed to getting under way at the “earliest possible opportunity”.

Officers said the planning agent had recently submitted additional information to allow a re-assessment of the proposal based upon an updated business case, adding much of the financial data had come direct from the activity operators and was “deemed to be robust”.

Neath Port Talbot Council planning officers are recommending the six-month extension be granted for the permission of the development subject to conditions, adding if the required legal agreements are not completed by March 31